Mr. Paul’s 13-hour filibuster on Thursday raised the tea party senator’s national profile — and drew sharp jabs the next day from fellow Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain — but Mr. McCarthy, the House’s third-ranked Republican, says Mr. Paul’s critics are just wrong.

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“What Rand Paul did on the floor this week was fantastic,” Mr. McCarthy, of California, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I think those Republican who criticized him were wrong. And this is a place that I think the Democrats were wrong that a lot of them didn’t join with him. This was an American issue … and an idea of civil liberties. I think that’s a core belief of Republicans, and if we embrace a little more of our libertarian views, we’ll go further.”

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About the Author

David Eldridge joined The Washington Times in 1999 and over the next seven years helped lead the paper’s coverage of regional politics and government, Sept. 11, and the sniper attacks of 2002. In 2006, he was named managing editor of the paper’s website before moving on to editing and reporting stints at Roll Call, the Hill and InsideSources. He returned ...